Thank you Soul Journallers

http://asouljournal.blogspot.com

How Beautiful Is My Daughter??

This is my Tashi. Been a bit blah lately, but this little face is enough to brighten anyone's day don't you think? 

And just one Soul Journal page for now.

Sickly Bunny

Anybody heard of mycoplasma? I hadn't until recently, and no one I know outside of Singapore has heard of of either.

Anyway, I have had it for over three weeks now and it is mighty horrible, let me tell you. I finally got the official diagnoses and antibiotics late last week and am beginning to feel better.

So I have done very little apart from feel sorry for myself, and just one little painting in the style of (complete imitation actually!) of Kelly Rae Roberts, whose book, Taking Flight, is absolutely wonderful.

So I will post the painting and hope to be up for a little soul journalling soon. As always, I miss my group and all the inspiration you give me.

Bookmarks for A Soul Journal...and a bit of a whine...

So my children were having a bath, turned the floor into a swimming pool, I burst through the door in my usual gentle manner and went flying, landing straight on my back. Result: PAIN!!!!!!!!!!! And a trapped nerve that has only just found it's way out. Ow, ow, ow. Hence the gap in communications...

These bookmarks are off in the post today and hopefully will just scrape through in time for the deadline. I have used a Tibetan prayer bead for the belts, which can be removed so that the bookmark lays flat in the book, and can perhaps be used in some artwork by the recipient. (They can be unrolled.) All of the dangly bits can be removed and used in the same way if so desired.

One goddess envelope contains a little badge, and the other contains three inchie backgrounds. Both bookmarks have a message that seemed pertinent to the goddess theme that I chose from my G personal lexicon.

The hearts are microbeads covered with embossing liquid. I love hearts, as many of us do, and try to incorporate them when suitable. 

I painted the angel charms with metallic paint. These stand for being our own angels, which I think we are all capable of (on a good day!). I think each of us, deep down, know the answers to our own questions.

One has an old Chinese coin for hair/halo, and the other, a decorated flower. The tags are painted, embossed, then threaded with a word charm.

Hope the recipients like them!

Out of the Loop

Hi everyone,

I have not been able to get a connection for a few days and feel completely out of the loop, however, I have done a little page for the Blissfully Art Journalling group on the theme of "I'm So Tired..."

The prompt instantly made me think of one of my favourite songs from my mother's youth (yeah right!!!) by Al Green: I'm So Tired of Being Alone.

I couldn't shift the tune, but it rang true anyway, so here I am, baring my soul, which I guess is what journalling is about, ultimately. 

It has had the opposite effect of my last page, not surprisingly, but that's ok. Nothing wrong with a little reflection. And perhaps  a little Prince hunting may be in order... ;o)

Enjoy the Ride: The begining of a blogger

I just read the following entry on Tracy Kaufman's blog and it has affected me deeply, so I have posted the link and hope you find time to read it. 

Enjoy the Ride: The begining of a blogger

Blog Party Give Away

Here it is!

The big fat Blog Party giveaway from the 'A Soul Journal' blog by me!!!!!!!!

Yes, you heard it right! A brand new copy of the wonderful 'In This House' by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn.

Only two conditions apply to enter this fabulous, once in a lifetime, opportunity!

One: you must obviously not already have a copy, because that would be a little pointless!

Two: you must want to swap with me, on an occasional basis, some 'In This House' themed thingy; an ATC perhaps, an inchie or two, a bookmark, for example.

What do you say? To enter, please answer my little pollette on the right :o)

Doodle Oodle Oo

Prompt No 7 from my lovely Soul Journal Group.

An opportunity to stop angsting all over the place and do some simple doodling; thank you, lovely Prompt Diva, thank you! 

So I cut the original doodle out, stuck it onto the page with a brad, photocopied it, and then found a few creatures and objects within it to make a page out of.

Still having problems accessing the 

group site but will post asap.

Mixi

This is a little character I have discovered. In my brain. Not without inspiration from a label that I was looking at when I drew her of course; I am neither good enough, nor original enough for that unfortunately :o(

But I like her and I think she will be popping up somewhere soon.

Betty Edwards Inspired Drawing

I learned how to draw this on a course a few years ago. I think I will get back to practicing. I find it so hard though; it literally takes me hours to achieve anything I am happy with. 

Keron over at Blissfully Art Journalling has inspired me. You can see why at http://thecolourguru.typepad.com

Thank you Keron!

E for Evidence, F for Fool, G for Good Riddance

Oh this was FUN!!!!!!!!

The prompt 'Evidence" was from Blissfully Art Journalling. 

One thing led to another and soon it entered my little Personal Lexicon book and became E for Evidence, F for Fool and G for Good Riddance. One letter just seemed to flow happily into the next and formed a little story.

I never deliberately look at photo's of the ex (well, you wouldn't, would you; look at him...) but as soon as the idea of Fool came to me (as it often does when the ex comes to mind) I dug this up and went for it. The more I altered his photo and the picture of the jester, the more I laughed and lightened up.

Hey presto; it was an epiphany (I can feel another E page coming on). He looks so ridiculous (accurately so, may I add), that I think I can bear to look at it/him. 

I used some blackboard scrapbook paper for the background and gesso'd over it just leaving the words listen, learn and know visible, and then slightly changed them to make them appropriate to my journal entry.

I was not at all keen on the colours initially, but now the black and whiteness of it seems right for the Evidence theme.  

The words around the jester are just a few of my little pet names for him ;o) And some to describe how I believe his life has turned out so far.

How are the Blog Party preparations going for everyone? I have a little collection of things but no idea how to transfer them in a festive manner so will have to do more research.

I do, however, have a FABULOUS prize/giveaway, which I will reveal shortly. (What a little teaser I am!)

Off now, to consider the world, the universe, and the meaning of life............

Pointy Hats etc

To clarify!!!

I LOVE the pointy hats, wings, striped stockings and wavy writing! Mine just looks naff by comparison :o))

M is for Mortal Coil

I have still not got a grip on the layout techniques for blogging yet. The Egg page was supposed to be up here. I will probably go back to it to put something inside the egg.

The M page is not finished, but I am too tired now and off to my bed.

I have just seen that my Healing Love is on the main page and cannot stop smiling. Thank you, thank you thank you!

I have also been tagged. Wow! I am honoured. Thank you Christy. I will be jumping out of bed early tomorrow to get tagging.

Personal Lexicon

Well this opened up a whole can of worms!

So. First of all I did nothing. I was not inspired. I was in a mood. I looked at my fellow journallers work, and to tell the truth, I was not a happy bunny. In fact I was a green bunny. I was a great big jealous lump of non-creative blahness. Not a pretty sight.

I finally got over myself yesterday and just got on with it. Doing my stuff. I have been spending so much time, and trying so hard to be original. To be different. To avoid the pointy hats and wings. To stay away from striped stockings and wavy writing. But the truth is, and thank goodness I have faced up to it, is that I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE ORIGINAL. I am a beginner. I am learning. I must work at this and give it all I have if I want to be good. Then I may find my originality. My own style. Until then, I will copy and imitate. I will be a happy little blog burglar. A style stealer. A thankful thief. Mwah ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rather than do one page for the Lexicon prompt,  I have decided to start a separate little book. I will add letters to it as I think of them. It was going to be Adrienne's Little Lexicon of Luuurrrve, but the very first page has proved this to be a little too dark for that title.

This soul journalling think is really getting to me. And there I was thinking it was all about pretty pictures! Oh well...

Feel The Luuurrrve... Healing Love

This is dedicated to someone who needs to keep positive whilst her mean and evil ex, The Prince of Planet Steward (his surname) tries to crush her spirit and bring her to her knees by wresting control of their beautiful children and using cunning maintenance manipulation to imprison her whilst he sails away on his Yacht of Yearning Youth. 

I wanted to show the whole cut out figure: it seems to say "dance in the face of adversity". 

The song "I wish you love" just popped into my head whilst thinking of what I wanted to say so I went with that. I hadn't considered the lyrics before - they are lovely.

The hearts contain the phrase "This too shall pass" apparently from a myth about King Solomon which is worth googling. I would like one of those silver rings. I mean, I'm sure my friend would like one.

Permission Slip The Second

This follows my first, truly awful attempt which will not be published here any time soon!

I want to be good at this!  Now!  Without hours and hours of practice and hard work!

Yes, and I also want to understand quantum mechanics and string theory...

Meanwhile, I'll keep putting in the time and the effort and learn, learn, learn.

The cheeky little secret permission on the back (not so secret since I already mentioned this in my post) is "and to believe in fairies" - it's my permission slip, and I'll fly if I want to!

Yes, barking.  Positively barking ;o)

Up next: Healing Love. Have to do a separate post though as I don't know how to add another photo yet.

PS: The $ signs are because I lost my scan thingy when the hard disk died last week and I can't find the installation disk. 

The Finished Page

Hi everyone.  I really missed the contact.

My hard disk is no more. It took everything on my computer with it. Until I can reload my scanner, my pages will have $ signs all over them I'm afraid. Better than nothing.

Here is the final version of my Lost and Found page. You may notice that half of the butterfly is missing: the wrong type of glue I guess. It can't be far though as the journal has not left my studio - hey, I can call my children's playroom whatever I want, right? ;o) It will turn up eventually. 

I have loved looking at all the wonderful work. I am so glad to be back.

 

Lost and Found

This is the first part of my Lost and Found page. I await your comments so that I may proceed. 

My found objects are a clothing label, Malaysian money of very little value, a key, a broken butter hair clip, a Starbucks label, a button, a little tag with Wishing Stars written on it, a money exchange receipt, a rope handle from a shopping bag, and an arrow embellishment.

The arrow is pointing to '100%' since that is what I want to focus on giving. The key symbolises the opening of new opportunities, the butterfly is for emerging and moving on to better things, and I love the thought of wishing on a star. Starbucks coffee is absolutely essential to my day, and the money exchange receipt reminds me of my trip to see friends and family in the UK last week. Underneath the clothing label, on the money, I have written "far away places" and stuck the work "ambient" on too. These are reminders to me that I have places to go and that I must keep my attention on everything around me to make the most of any opportunities that might be around.

I am late with this due to a week in the UK to visit my mum so I hope I am not too late to mingle and comment tomorrow.

You can see my stuff in the photo section of the yahoo site. I don't have any soul journalling to show yet so I have posted some altered book pages etc.

Actually, looking at this, I can see it is going to be difficult to make a comment since the quality of the scan is awful! No idea what I am doing wrong...

My Soul Journal Blog Begins.....

Well, that was easy; and I added all the gadgets I could! I will attempt to enter the information over the following few days.

I hope to get to know the members of the Soul Journalling yahoo group I have just joined, and learn from you all. I have been so impressed by your work. Mine seems very average, in comparison, but I am here to learn.

Of course, my method of learning may involve a lot of copying at the start, but I have read that learning by imitation is a valid method of growing so I will stop beating myself up about it and get on with it!

Off to start uploading now...